GUEST COLUMN: Amelia Singer ’10
This is the current RA of the French House. I am a Junior who has lived in the French House for almost a year and a half, a year of which I have been the RA. I am a double major in Sociology and Gender Studies, an Intercultural Club President, and have been the president of a diversity club since my freshman year here. I did a presentation at the symposium last year, and am consistently committed to bringing diversity awareness to this campus in all possible ways.
I would like to respond to some criticism that has been voiced against the French House’s recent event, “A Night in Morocco.” Each semester, the house puts on an event (formerly known as “Quarter Coffee Café”), in which we serve French food and drink to students, but also provide information about France. This time, the house decided to switch our focus to Morocco, a French-speaking country in northern Africa.
Professor Semerjdian expressed concerns with the fliers used to advertise the event, which showed belly dancers and sand, as she feared we were making a culture we are not a part of seem exotic and other by putting it on display. Although we did not plan on having belly dancing at the event, it was advertised, and there was a picture of belly dancing on these fliers.
These fliers were not “inadvertently reproducing racist and imperialist imagery” and it is presumptive and imaginative to say the belly dancers are “invoking a harem fantasy” with “the observer viewing the women from their voluptuous backsides” implying that there is a Westerner there to view something that is not a part of their culture and therefore less than it, making that “other” culture exotic.
When people think of the French House, they think of France. While there is nothing wrong with this, there are so many other countries, cultures and dialects that I feel are an important part of Francophone culture. Our previous events have been fun; we eat chocolate mousse and crepes, we learn about Paris, but what about Senegal, Belgium, Quebec, Mali, Morocco! Am I Moroccan?
No. Is anyone in my house Moroccan? No. Does that give me less of a right to represent that culture? It’s something I can’t answer. But I can tell you what we did. We talked to our Moroccan friends, we had a research team, we watched Moroccan films, read Moroccan books, listened to Moroccan music, found Moroccan decorations, made Moroccan food. We created a tasteful, enjoyable evening in which all profits go to charity as they do every semester. Most of all, students and professors at Whitman left this event having learned about a culture they might not otherwise have been exposed to, and they learned about it through multiple senses.
Last semester, our café night focused on the city of Paris, but no one in our house was French. Even our Native Speaker: a position usually filled by someone from France: was from Quebec. Can it then be argued that we were misrepresenting Parisian culture? If not, were we still misrepresenting it by showing the romanticized side of Paris, absent of homeless people, of burning cars in dangerous ghettos, of tensions with immigrants from Northern Africa, of religious persecution.
One person commented on the fliers that we used to advertise the event. One person, one day before the event, out of dozens of students, dozens of faculty who walked by them. Is this a tragedy on the part of Whitman’s educational system, or a miscommunication on what is appropriate? In either case, we didn’t have much time to respond to such criticism.
We never intended to have belly dancing at this event. We never intended to other-ize or orientalize a culture. Our goal was simply to draw light to the many Francophone cultures in Africa and around the world as part of the mission of Whitman to bring more diversity to this campus. We accomplished this.
As a diverse student at Whitman, I have been in a marginalized position before and have been frustrated when others could not see my view. I see the other side, understand it, and frankly have to disagree with it. I have a caring, intelligent house who worked hard to put this program on, despite the miscommunication with our advertising. If this event was a problem, then I have a problem with a lot of other events on Whitman’s campus.
What the administration may not recognize is that it is petty arguments such as this which make students frustrated with diversity programming, and lash out against it. Why do you think the Symposium was so poorly attended last year, and it will not happen this year? Because students are sick of being blamed for not being diverse enough, not being culturally sensitive enough, not being as aware as they should be. Diversity is supposed to be fun: what happened? Students became discouraged by the constant politics surrounding any event they wish to put on. I have my experiences, I have my opinion and I have made a positive impact on diversity on this campus, and I will continue to be an involved leader despite constant criticism.
